The surveys about cliff plants have been faced with the problems of high costs, high risks and difficult identification because they are inaccessible. In this study, an innovative survey method, UVA close-range photography, is proposed for the identification of cliff plants. By studying the relationship of the Margalef index, Simpson index and Pielou index of cliff plants, the effects of altitude, light, site conditions and water vapor conditions on cliff plants are explored. In total 267 species of cliff plants which belong to 58 families and 140 genera are found in this survey. The results show that the relationship between the species of cliff plants and the change of altitude follows a normal distribution, reaching the peak at the middle altitude 700-800m. The Simpson index and Pielou index reach the peak at low altitude, which decrease with the increase of altitude, but do not show an obvious change rule; under different site conditions, the species composition, dominant species and occurrence frequency of plant communities are different; the correlation analysis of cliff plants shows that there are different significant relationships among the indexes of cliff plants when the light conditions are different or the site conditions are different. The difference between the cliff plants close to the water area and the control group shows that the species composition and quantity of cliff plants are affected by the water vapor conditions among the cliff walls, and the higher the water vapor condition is, the more abundant plant species are in the area. The characteristics of the distribution of cliff plants are the result of the combination of altitude, light, site conditions and water vapor conditions.